It's been a while since I've been on here, I've had a bit of too-many-hobbies syndrome. I have started painting up my miniatures and have decided on a generally indoor theme for the basing of my Dickensians. So far I'm happy with the result and thought I'd share my method with those of you that would like to give it a go.

What you can expect
Attached are some initial pics of my first model (still only roughly painted and not even fully assembled) on what is a simple floorboard base. The paint job for the floor is not finished either and my camera wasn't really picking up the colours well. This Urkin has a pair of candles that sit above his head attached to his backpack gear, so you'll note I've made the paint job lighter and warmer on the back side. More importantly, the floorboards themselves and their grooves etc is what I aim to teach you how to replicate.

What you'll need
- Miniatures
- Supersculpey (for Aussies, I believe spotlight or lincraft does packs for ~$35, and a closing down riot art does them for $25)
- Some tools for sculpting
- A kettle or similar method for obtaining boiled water (have not tried 'boiling' water and would not advise it in case the plastic base melts)

Attachments

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Last edited by Trystero on Mon Oct 23, 2017 7:06 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Take a base, ensure its clean. Feel free to score up the inside surface with something sharp to get better adherence with the supersculpey but it's not necessary - just be careful not to scratch the outside lip.

Step Two

Take a small blob of supersculpey and warm it in your hands. To do this, squeeze and fold it a few times. When it is malleable enough flatten it into the central area of the base. Don't worry if it goes over the edges.

Step Three

Run the edge of your thumb around the top of the outside lip, kind of cutting off the excess. I did this in quarter arcs, adjusting the base as I had cleared an area. Once that's done just gently push the edge of the supersculpey directly towards the centre of the base. Take your time with this as you don't want to 'roll' the supersculpey pancake out of its little indent.

Attachments

Step One

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Step Two

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Step Three

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Last edited by Trystero on Mon Oct 23, 2017 10:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.

If you have too much supersculpey sitting in the indent then either scrape a little off and flatten it off using the steps above or if you have a large thumb like me just push it down and take the excess from the slot underneath the base.

Step Four

Take your tools and start sculpting. I used a relatively thick point - like a toothpick with the first millimetre removed from the end - and ran lines through the supersculpey. I did the larger grooves first to get an idea of how thick I wanted the planks, then ran it through again on the actual planks. I did this more lightly but this time added swerves and curves to the lines to try to replicate grain patterns. Angle the tool as if you're trailing a stick (dragging it on the ground) behind you that way it won't 'kick up' the supersculpey as you cut through it. It'll still do it a bit, but not as much. Layer you'll need to try to collect these little offcuts that pop up as best you can with a pointy tool, it's handy to have a spare blob of supersculpey to wipe them on. With the ends of the planks rough them up a little by pushing, dragging and scoring the ends; it'll look right after a bit of playing, just don't leave them too straight an edge.

With this one I've done some wood perpendicular, and tried a knot in one plank. Now at this point, you might like to try adding a pipe or some other doodad. If you want it to look like it's coming out of the wood then perhaps create the doodad and cure it by cooking g it as described on the supersculpey box. Once you've done that you can push it into the wood or cut a suitable hole depending on the style you want. I would then remove the doodad, cure the base then glue the doodad into place later.

Note: the last picture in this set doesn't really show how deep the grain work is, it looks pretty light on at this stage, once I paint it it'll look more obvious.

Once you're happy with the style it's time to place the model. I like to make my models dig in with a couple of spikes rather than the whole slot, so I take some metal cutters and cut away most of the slot leaving one or two spikes.

Step Six

I would recommend at this stage if you want a more 'cartoonish' ground you should try to soften the edges by very very gently patting it down with your finger. After you're happy with the style of groundwork, it's time to cure it.

I removed the models gently from the soft clay and then stuck a bunch of ready-to-go bases into a ramekin but you can use any small dish. I then poured boiled water in and let it sit until the water had gone cold, then emptied the water and repeated. I did this 4-5 times. After which the clay had gone mostly hard.

Attachments

Here are two more designs

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Step Five - Note the triangular spikes under the boots

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Step Five - continued - check for placement

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Last edited by Trystero on Tue Nov 07, 2017 4:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Once dried, I basecoated the models. I used pure black (warhammer citadel) spray to get into the cracks but you can use whatever you like.
Sorry about the picture being side on
You'll also note that there is a little pipe coming out from between the floorboards on the leftmost base that is absent in the next photo, it snapped off but I intend to glue it back on a bit later.

Step Eight

I then painted the wood in browns, reds, oranges even a little yellow. This was mostly done as dry brushing, and I also added some shades to ink into the recesses. I still haven't finished the Urkin slasher with the molotov, but here's a pic of Bullseye

That's pretty much it. I hope some of you get some value out of this tutorial and if you follow the process then please feel free to add some pics to this post, I'd love to see what you come up with